Issue 35, 2021

3D printed architected conducting polymer hydrogels

Abstract

Conducting polymer hydrogels combine electrical conductivity and tunable water content, rendering them strong candidates for a range of applications including biosensors, cell culture platforms, and energy storage devices. However, these hydrogels are mechanically brittle and prone to damage, prohibiting their use in emerging applications involving dynamic movement and large mechanical deformation. Here, we demonstrate that applying the concept of architecture to conducting polymer hydrogels can circumvent these impediments. A stereolithography 3D printing method is developed to successfully fabricate such hydrogels in complex lattice structures. The resulting hydrogels exhibit elastic compressibility, high fracture strain, enhanced cycling stability, and damage-tolerant properties despite their chemical composition being identical to their brittle, solid counterparts. Furthermore, concentrating the deformation to the 3D geometry, rather than polymer microstructure, effectively decouples the mechanical and electrical properties of the hydrogel lattices from their intrinsic properties associated with their chemical composition. The confluence of these new physical properties for conducting polymer hydrogels opens broad opportunities for a myriad of dynamic applications.

Graphical abstract: 3D printed architected conducting polymer hydrogels

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 4月 2021
Accepted
27 5月 2021
First published
08 6月 2021

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2021,9, 7258-7270

Author version available

3D printed architected conducting polymer hydrogels

R. S. Jordan, J. Frye, V. Hernandez, I. Prado, A. Giglio, N. Abbasizadeh, M. Flores-Martinez, K. Shirzad, B. Xu, I. M. Hill and Y. Wang, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2021, 9, 7258 DOI: 10.1039/D1TB00877C

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